Fever a child’s friend?

I am slightly intrigued by an article which claims ‘Fever can be a child’s friend‘ – it is certainly not a friend in our household! Both our boys are temperature boys and they head straight for the 39.0c route on the thermometer as a start and wander very close to the 40.0c mark (at times over). It can sometimes take 2-3 days for them to get to under 39.0c with all the will in the world. Whilst I agree fevers are a way of helping to build an immune system, I do not necessarily find the information in this article helpful. I am no doctor nor health specialist or anything medical. Just a mum who knows how frightening the first high fever can be when you have a small baby/child.

Whilst I am on the subject of temperatures, what doctors class as a fever (anything over 37.5c) for all people is not necessarily an accurate way of classing a fever. Our boys normal body temperature is 36.8c , so anything between this and 37.5c for them should be classed as a form of a fever (give or take 0.3c or so). My point is, know your child’s usual body temperature – I have only ever had 1 doctor ask me this question!

So, I *may* have mentioned previously that our household gets it’s fair share of bugs (Immune Building or Bug Heaven ). At one point there wasn’t a week that went by that there weren’t antibiotics of some description in our house and to try and balance the bacteria war – I would try and get some probiotics in the boys, usually a powdered form of lactobacillus acidophilus that would go very nicely in some yoghurt.

Now that winter is here, and there appears to be a variety of bugs going around that aren’t very pleasant, I have resorted to the usual kiddies multi-vitamins but also elderberry extract and echinacea drops when something is brewing. Hopefully, this will help us out over the next few months.